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Andrew HowlettCEORain |
With everything in technology changing as fast as any of us can type, there has never been a more unpredictable or more exciting time to be in the digital industry. We don’t have to look back a decade to see large technology shifts. A year or two is sufficient to see that amazing strides have been made. Here are a few major shifts we’re currently experiencing and a few that are on the horizon.
Cloud Computing
Two years ago, our company invested nearly $200,000 of time and equipment into a clustered server environment for a large music project we were involved in. At the time, it was a technological wonder. Now, cloud computing has made the previous model an antique, and those servers are now only worth pennies; they might even be a liability. While large conceptually, cloud computing has many smaller ideas that go into what will make it a reality: not needing software; having the ability to perform all activity from a remote server somewhere; and possibly a way to deliver services rather than applications completely independent of platforms and physical hardware. To understand cloud computing, think of a computer as we use it today and see it as simply the device that connects to the big computer that we’re collectively building.
Mobile Computing
Just over a year ago, mobile applications were a novelty, reserved for those willing to go through the pain of finding and installing them. “An app for that” wasn’t in anyone’s vernacular or on our minds. Now, a year later, what would many of us do without the light saber app on our iPhones, or mobile Facebook and Twitter updates to let us know what our friends had for lunch? As memory and speeds continue to increase with each new phone release, mobile computing will take on entirely new meaning. Our mobile hard drives will be next to our ears and in our pockets at all times. Our information will be just a plug-in, Bluetooth or wireless connection away. Combine that with a keyboard, mouse, monitor and a cloud full of applications, and we will have a full-fledged computer with us at all times. Airline movie screens in the backs of seats will double as your monitor to connect with your phone, with touch pads and keyboards built into trays. We will connect to televisions to display movies or presentations for work.
Consumption of Information
When looking at projects, we tend to look at Web, desktop and mobile implementations as three distinct parts. Thus, we bid on these three projects separately. Budgets and time-constraints tend to limit most projects like these, so we choose one platform to build for and, for the most part, it’s been the Web. Therefore, consumers are forced to the platform of the company or agency’s choice, limiting access and convenience. In the coming months and years, creators of information and applications, whatever that may be, will allow users to choose how they want to consume that product. Information and applications will become platform agnostic and code-unified. We’re already seeing this trend happening between Web and desktop, with the introduction of Adobe AIR leveraging the Adobe Flex framework. This trend will continue to include mobile and even television. Younger consumers will demand equal access to all information over mobile thus pushing the hardware and software of those devices to comply.
App Development Will Shift to Non-iPhone
To date, when any client asks for an application to be developed, undoubtedly they ask for an “iPhone app.” Apple has done an amazing job of providing a superior platform and delivery method for these applications and ,consequently we’ve all jumped on that wagon. The truth is, though, iPhones represent less than one percent of all mobile devices worldwide. Nokia’s OVI store is gaining traction, Android has the backing of Google, and RIM has a user-base so wide that its Blackberry App World is bound to gain customers. The numbers game will come into play, and, for the same reason a software maker has avoided making a “Mac Only” version of their product, the industry will begin to look at other platforms first, because of the availability to a much larger customer base.
Conclusion
Change is a certainty in technology. Google Wave will change our communication channels again. HTML 5 will address many of the deficiencies of previous versions and open up another mad-dash for literacy in that new language. Apple’s iPad will further shifting our mobile computing boundaries. And Twitter will continue to share little gems with us, like this one I read from a friend,: “the ROI on innovation is survival.” Amen.
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